Dear Year 2 families,
Welcome to Year 2! We hope that your children are feeling excited about the year ahead... We all are!
This is what a typical school day will look like for your child this year:
Phonics / Guided Reading
Writing - Including handwriting / spelling
Break
Lunch and Play
Maths –Mastering Number
Foundation subjects / PE
Picture News / Storytime
Home Time
PE sessions for this term (subject to change) are:
2W - Monday & Wednesday
2SJ - Wednesday & Friday
Please ensure your child comes to school wearing appropriate PE kit on these days, especially appropriate footwear.
Maths
Throughout the Autumn term we will be covering units on Number and Place Value, Properties of shape, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division as well as Position and Direction.
Remember that your child has access to Numbots and Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) which will support your child’s maths. We will put your child’s log-in in their Reading Records. If you lose it, don’t worry! Please let us know as soon as you can and we will give you a replacement.
When we start a new unit of work in maths, we will send home a ‘knowledge organiser’ which will show you visuals about what your child is learning.
(We will properly introduce Times Tables Rock Stars when we start learning about multiplication in Spring Term, but you are welcome to let your child go on it if you’d like them to get going with the 2, 5 and 10 times tables as these are the tables that the children must know by the end of Year 2.)
Home learning
We will inform you each Friday of any home learning activities. The work will include:
· Reading every day (please see the information below)
· A maths activity to support what they are doing in class
· An English-based activity to support their learning – including spelling
Please make sure that reading does happen daily. We are more relaxed about the rest of the homework, it would be great if your child can do it but it is not compulsory. We do not want it to become a negative thing at home, especially as your children are so young! Please do take a look at the home learning, it will be helpful for you to know what we have been doing during the week and we might pop a note on the letter that would be worth reading!
Reading
Writing
As well as working towards the Year 2 skills for writing, we continue to focus on handwriting and spelling this year. We will give you information that will be useful during the year. We are teaching writing slightly differently this year, which is exciting! Each unit starts with a ‘hook’ to engage the children with the new text, we then gather vocabulary and explore writing poems, after that a narrative and then a non-fiction based write. We are excited about this and the wide variety of writing opportunities it will give the children.
Spellings
It is invaluable to continue to practice the Year 1 and now the Year 2 high frequency (common exception/red) words. These are the words that the children should be able to read and spell by the end of Year 2. We will inform you each week of any focus spellings that we would like you to support your child with.
These can also be found online at www.woodlands.kent.sch.uk/attachments/download.asp?file=161&type=pdf
Other curriculum subjects
We will be covering the following subjects this term –
Autumn 1
History – The Great Fire of London
PSHE – Relationships – ‘Being Me in My World’
Science – Materials and their Properties
Art – Printing – William Morris / David Hearld
PE – Gymnastics and Commando Joe
RE – What do Christians believe God is like?
Computing – Online Safety and Digital Photography
Autumn 2
Science – Materials and their Properties
History – Remembrance Day and Walter Tull
Music – African Rock ‘Hands, Feet, Heat’
DT – Textiles. Make a hanging poppy for Remembrance Day
PE – Invasion & Ball Skills
Computing – E Safety
PSHE – Celebrating Differences
Dates for your diary:
Thursday 26th September – parents are invited to join us making Tudor Houses at 1:30pm.
Wednesday 9th October – Great Fire of London Theme day (see details below)
Thursday 28th November – parents are invited to join us making poppies at 1:30pm.
Great Fire of London theme day:
Wednesday 9th October – all day. We will put a message out requesting volunteers for that day – keep an eye out for that if you are interested. It’s a terrific day. The children will also have the opportunity, if they would like it, to dress up. The letter attached contains the information that you need about this. Some children chose not to dress up, that is fine, but the more that can, the merrier! Please speak to your child’s class teacher if you would like clarification or to discuss this in more detail.
Thank you for all the support that you give your children at home; it is really appreciated. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher. We are here to support you and your child in every way we can. We look forward to working together with you all so that we have another exciting and productive year.
From The Year 2 Team
Miss Nicky Woollatt (2W Class Teacher)
Mrs Toni Sarna (2SJ Class Teacher - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)
Mrs Rachel Jones (2SJ Class Teacher - Thursday and Friday)
Mrs Mandy Errington (2W TP)
Mrs Mason and Mr J-T (2SJ TPs)
Mrs Flood will teach 2SJ on Wednesday morning when we have our Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time and Mrs Freeman will be teaching 2W on Thursday mornings.